Egypt, Pakistan Deny Importing Israeli Arms

In an unusual concurrence of opinion, Egypt, Pakistan and Israel all agreed on Wednesday that the British report saying Egypt and Pakistan imported Israeli arms, was false.

Haaretz reported on Tuesday that a British report in 2011 stated that Israel exported weapons over the past five years to Pakistan and four Arab countries: Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.

Cairo quickly denied the report on Wednesday. The Egyptian Army denied the claims that it purchased weapons from Israel, according to a report published by the Egypt state information service website.

Military spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohamed Ali called the claims baseless, adding that the army follows strict rules and that trust in the military establishment should never be shaken.

The Pakistani newspaper The Nation reported on Tuesday that a spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations totally rejected the news report. The ISPR is the media branch of the Pakistani Army.

Also on Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Ministry released a statement stating, “Israel denies selling any military equipment to Pakistan,” and that Israel plans to contact the British office in charge of export permits to seek an explanation for the information that was published.

The statement then went into damage control mode, trying to keep Pakistan’s bitter enemy, India, from thinking that the report is true. “Israel’s strategic relationship with India, the strongest [most populous] democracy in the world, which like Israel is dealing with terrorist threats and is a key anchor in international relations,” said the statement.

“Israel is not doing anything to jeopardize the excellent relations that it has with this country,” the Defense Ministry statement concluded.